Asian Games are on?

Well yes, the Asian Games are on at Doha and India has sent a contingent of 426 athletes! Up to now, We have one gold in Chess(Koneru Hampy) and couple of silvers and bronzes to date. This is relatively okay and we have been winning in mens and womens hockey too.

What surprises me though is the lack of interest for the games. First off, its televised only on DD, which still needs to learn a trick or two on marketing an event like Asian Games for which, I am sure, they have paid a lot of money! Secondly, the print media, at least TOI, seems to know very well that Asian Games has not entered into the peoples psyche and hence is not even in the first page of the Sports page! Add to this the very pedestrian commentary by the same old faces/voices almost puts you to sleep. These guys surface every Asian Games, Common wealth Games, Afro-Asian Games and SAARC Games and treat each of these no differently than the State Championship!

Anyway, a chance to watch the Chinese dominate and edge ever closer to world domination in sports is very interesting. Up to the early 1970's they used to win the same number of medals as India and then someone in the administration took the whole issue of sports seriously and today they totally dominate the Asian Games and give very decent competition in the Olympics. What is interesting about their rise in sports is also the respect they garner in other fields. Most of the rich west treat sports and fitness as being an integral part of their lives and they tend to relate and respect folks from countries who also treat sports similarly. China is doing that quite well these days and earning many brownie points while our obsession with a sport that the west has no clue of isn't getting us many crumbs!

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